Flyers hope to continue thinking less, winning more

Flyers right wing Jake Voracek, right, celebrates his second goal of the second period with teammate Wayne Simmonds during their shutout of the Senators last Tuesday. The Flyers are hoping to continue their upward trend when Ottawa pays them a visit Tuesday. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

VOORHEES, N.J. — There couldn’t be any more encouraging news for the Flyers than the collective admission Monday that they’ve reached the stage of not thinking about what they’re doing.

An optimum state of mind for the common hockey team.

“That’s what we want,” coach Craig Berube said. “We don’t want them thinking about it. We want them to just go. We want them to skate and work and know where they’ve got to be. When you do that, your team is going to look a lot faster.”

Thus with the fervent hope that they can keep acting on instinct rather than reacting from the head, the Flyers will host the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center. It will be just a week after the Flyers enjoyed their most complete victory of the year, a 5-zilch shellacking of the Sens to spark a road trip in which they garnered five out of a possible six points.

So while the Senators will certainly be playing from a vengeful perspective with this rematch in Philadelphia, the Flyers (7-10-2), unbeaten in four straight games, are thinking that the automatic level of play they’ve achieved of late can not only continue, but get better so long as they follow one battle plan — no brain, just gain.

“It’s becoming second nature,” Wayne Simmonds said. “We’ve practiced it so much now that you don’t even think about it when you go on the ice. It just happens. So that’s always a good thing.

“It’s an important week. We had success the last three games on the road and we want to carry over the momentum at home. It starts with playing simple. ... Keep getting pucks deep, keep chipping pucks out of our zone. That’s what’s led to our success so far.”

“Success” is a bit of a dubious term for a team that is buried in the Metropolitan Division cellar. But the Flyers have at least crawled to within sniffing distance of the teams in the upper echelon of the conference ranks, and are hoping their recent run is just a start.

“We’re more in synch,” Vinny Lecavalier said. “We’re playing better as a team. The confidence level is definitely higher. It’s always tough when you get a (coaching) change and you’ve got to change your systems. But now I really feel that we’re more in synch and it’s just that the more reps and practices we get the better we’ll be at it.

“When you’re used to (playing) a system, you don’t have to think about it. Then you change it and all of a sudden you have to think, ‘Wait, I have to be here and not there,’” Lecavalier added. “It’s more little (positioning) things like that. The more you do it the better you get at it. The less you think about it, you use more of your instincts instead of thinking too much out there.”

As for this Senators rematch, the Flyers feel playing the kind of error-free, textbook defensive hockey that they did last week in Ottawa should be a mandate.

It doesn’t take much thought to reach that conclusion, either.

“Obviously, Ottawa has a good team,” Simmonds said. “We just have to look at what we did right in the last game. If you look at the turnover situation, I think we barely had any turnovers in that game. They thrive off turnovers. They’re a transition team. They have fast guys on that team; they want to work in the neutral zone off the rush. And if we can just simplify our game and do it the way we did it on the road and in Ottawa, we’ll be fine.”

•••

NOTES: Lecavalier is still wearing a shield to protect deep bruises on his face, of which he’s no fan. “It can fog up right before you go on (the ice), so it’s more annoying than anything,” he said. He’s estimating he’ll be able to get rid of it in “maybe a week or so.” ... Lecavalier also has called his ex-Tampa teammate Steven Stamkos, the league’s most dynamic goal scorer who went down with a broken leg last week. “Obviously when you see your buddy going down you want to know what’s going on with him,” Lecavalier said. “It’s a tough loss for the Lightning; he’s a great player and a great guy. I just wish him the best. It’s too bad, because he’s had such a great year. He’s going to come back strong for sure.”

Advertisement

About the Author

Rob Parent is the Daily Times sports editor. He also covers the Flyers as well as writing an occasional column. Reach the author at rparent@delcotimes.com
.